erova

as you should. you gotta play the big dogs in your own backyard...

on your long drive down from WA, you could play Chambers Bay, detour west a few hours to hit up the Bandon courses, hop onto Harding in SF, Pasatiempo in Santa Cruz, and finish off at Torrey. Unfortunately if you make that dream trip Torrey may be the least amazing. granted i'm sure i'm forgetting a few decent public tracks along the way but that ain't a bad 10 days of golf there...that IS what you had in mind, right SG? hehe

hi everyone, i'm making it out to san diego next week and have time for a few rounds. i've already got Torrey South booked (well worth the advance fee knowing i'm getting on), but am interested in opinions on where to play Monday. a few guys i played with at Bandon (who just came back from a golf trip to Scotland--must be nice) really recommended the Barona Valley Ranch & Casino golf course outside SD. given their experience, i thought i should value their opinions and i've looked into it and it looks pretty nice ( http://www.barona.com/ ). however, i'm also interested in any one else on here has played it, and if so would they recommend it or if i should play elsewhere. not interested in driving out to PGA West--not enough time. thanks in advance as always... --chris

i take a couple pics when i hit the road... link in my sig...

It's definitely an easy walk since it's so flat (relatively speaking). The caddies did have some great insight on the greens--there were a few reads that I certainly wouldn't have found by myself and I don't think I'm a complete jerk on the greens. I don't even recall seeing pullcarts out there, so you may not have that option. When I played 36 on the first day (Pac Dunes and Trails) I was glad I only carried my own bag for one loop.

That's accurate. I tipped out about a fifty each day (so about a hundo each round for two rounds--I didn't use a caddie on Trails)--a little less the second day because I just didn't have the cash and there were a few things that irked me a bit the second round. Keep in mind that Bandon assigns you a caddie for your entire stay. If you're uncomfortable with your caddie the first round, speak up because he'll be there ready to go the very next round too.

i was just out there last month for two nights, three rounds (one on each of the courses there). most of the resort is pretty straightforward and I can't really think of too many suggestions for what you'll do once you're there. if you find yourself in the town of bandon (about a 5 minute drive away), check out the Wheelhouse Restaurant and Crow's Nest for dinner and a few drinks. The owners are great to talk to (though with a crew of 15 you probably won't be looking for smalltalk as I ventured there as a single), and they have some great Oregon microbrews and Pacific Northwest wines on the menu. I walked over to Lloyd's Bar because I had read about it on a few web sites and the book (Dream Golf: The Making of Bandon Dunes), but it wasn't anything special. Again, with 15 people taking up the back corner I'm sure it could be fun, but saddling up to the bar wasn't really worth it. Regarding the golf, don't ever say "nice shot" to your playing partners until the ball arrives at a dead stop and you're positive it won't move again. I saw a ton of shots that started out terrible that finished next to the cup and vice versa. Check out the Flickr link in my signature if you want to see some of the photos from the courses. Weather was completely different in the two playing days (70 and sunny one day, 50 and mild rain the next). Enjoy the trip--it's a fantastic place to play golf and get away from everything else.

Travel & Leisure Golf just published their Florida issue which might help--take a look there!

definitely a fan of C & C--have you played any of Tom Doak's tracks? Very similar schools of thought that you sound like you'd appreciate...

i think any conversation of the best municipal golf courses starts with Tillie's arguably best work, the Black course at Bethpage State Park.

hey sonic, did you just roll up in the morning and tee off? i'm heading out there in february and am definitely going to try to play the South, and the North track if time allows... any details you could offer on here would be greatly appreciated!

thanks guys, i went ahead and ordered the 48 with the 30 day playability guarantee from TGW. while i definitely understand that my hands are coming in too fast or i'm closing the clubface (i.e. technique), i don't have that problem when I'm hitting a 9 iron 150 yards or dropping a nice 52 degree gap wedge onto the green. i think there's something about the look or the length of the club at address that doesn't feel the same as my vokeys, and thus alters something in my dern swing. the way i see it hitting a 48 degree shot a bit short leaves me in a better scoring position than if i pull hook my standard kit's pitching wedge 20 yards left. thanks again for your responses guys and it's good to hear others of you have swapped out your stock PWs....

hi guys, somehow i'm having a lot of trouble consistently hitting a pitching wedge really flush--usually i end up pull-hooking the stupid thing, however, i can usually hit my 52 degree wedge with a really high arc and soft landing, same as my 56 and 60 degree wedges, all of which are vokeys. my irons are callaway big berthas (2006 model) which have a really huge cavity-back and basically look almost identical from 4 iron through the pitching wedge. i'm considering substituting the callaway pitching wedge that came with my set and trying the 48 degree vokey wedge as a replacement. does any one have any comments or opinions? please note that comments like "don't pull hook your pitching wedge" will be met with a face dunk in a bunker .

td--you should keep an eye out for half-bottles now. a lot of great winemakers are now bottling some really good wines in the smaller format just for that reason. my wife and i have also recently taking note of county laws so that we can take an unfinished bottle of wine home with us from a night out so we aren't relegated to the by-the-glass list if it's a bit neglected compared to the real deal....

ha, i first tried conundrum at dinner with the wife at Pinehurst. good to see you on corkd, everado. penfolds is always a good go-to for me, but really i'm a big fan of a lot of Australian/NZ wines. here in dc, every november the clydes restaurant group hosts its annual oyster riot, where a number of Australian & NV sauvignon blancs are featured winners of their wine pairings. a great time. maybe some of you wine drinkers on the east coast should hit up http://www.renaultwinery.com/vinyard.asp outside of atlantic city, nj. first time i've hit a wedge out of a vineyard (let's not tell the marshalls that part of the story).

you should definitely check out corkd.com my profile is under my same handle there as here, and the site is a great resource to try new stuff or remember old bottles or glasses you've had in the past...

well said, Rusty. Here's the web site I set up for pics of my bulldog Miles: http://milesthebulldog.com

pine valley? maybe it's a cool day in nj and you can just take the private jet to augusta or cypress point. i recommend merion. (uhh riiiight)

finally played the Black (Bethpage State Park) on Thursday... I had bugged a few guys on the SandTrap about what it took to get on and what not so I owe a thanks to those guys who kept finding PM's from me bugging you... I'll have pictures up soon on my Flickr account in my sig... really loved the layout, design and challenge of that course. the 2 for 1 miller lites in the clubhouse bar ain't a bad way to lick your wounds either...

Bandon will likely never host a major because of the remote location and how the course is built (with no stadium/amphitheater greens or other places for grandstands, parking, tents, etc.). By no means is that a surprise to the Bandon ownership or a knock on the course itself, but it's simply not a course to host a major. I'm interested to hear how you guys got onto the course. Did you deal with those sketchy-sounding tee-time brokers? Or was anyone a walk-on?

i just played up there two weekends ago for a golf trip and i played a great track about an hour and a half north of boston in maine. check it out--i couldn't believe the quality of the course and greens relative to the price--$65 on a weekend morning. http://www.ledgesgolf.com in york, maine, just across the new hampshire border.

man, the most embarrassing moments on the course involved topped shots? i must play with some true knuckleheads then. here's a few of my best memories: 1) a buddy whiffs about 5 times before the teaching pro notices us all laughing and stops his lesson, walks over to the guy, and hands him his business card 2) another buddy hits an exploding golf ball and is initially convinced he's so strong he legitimately destroyed a titlelist 3) one of my friends and i are walking to an island green, only to realize he's got his beer in one hand and his putter cover in the other (putter's still in the cart) 4) once one of my crew's swings took out the tee from under the ball, but the ball just dropped into the divot, officially giving him the title of world's shortest golf shot i'd ever seen 5) back when i first started playing i hit my last ball into the sht, and still trying to finish the round, stepped into the thick stuff to track the ball down. not realizing it's really muck, i sink my foot into about 8 inches of nastiness, and use my club off a tree root to get my foot out, sans shoe. so now i've got this disgusting crap on my leg and my sock, and my damn shoe is still sinking like the titanic hosting a bbw singles swap. anyway i reach back into the sht, find my shoe, but still no ball, and my buddy is playing his last ball too. so i throw away my socks, take my other shoe off, and try to scrub off some of nature's finest off my leg while i get in the cart to get the F out of dodge. unfortunately a few people definitely saw me rolling up with my brown leg, no shoes, and no socks. to this day i always keep an extra pair of socks in the bag...

Hi Blag, I'm making it out to CO next month but have to play around Denver as I'm in town for a wedding and can't make it to the western side. I just read the review on the Ridge in this month's Golf Magazine and it looks nice. They also reviewed a course near Golden--obviously since it didn't make your list I'm assuming the Ridge is the way to go, but is it a quick trip down from Denver? On the map it doesn't look so bad at all...

hey nev, i'm trying to play the black this summer--how did you go about getting on? walk-on as a single? you a resident? i'm debating if i should just head on up to farmingdale and hope for the best or what... hehe nevermind, just saw your profile clearly mentioning you live in NY...

hmm, lemme see here...here's a few tracks i played for the first time this year: falls road, bethesda md oyster reef, hilton head beechtree, aberdeen md coffin golf club, indianapolis cog hill #4 - dubsdread, lemont il whistling straits (straits), kohler blackwolf run (river), kohler golden horseshoe, williamsburg va compass pointe, some town in md hmm so that's 9 new tracks so far. still have golf trips to new england and montana/idaho/utah/colorado in august so i'll add a few more then...